How To Value Price One-Off Projects

Why is pricing one-off projects so hard to do? I get asked about it all the time.

I think there are really four main reasons why…

• Unlike recurring services such as bookkeeping, payroll or tax returns which we can invest time into coming up with a system and structure, we have no way of preparing for one-off projects.
• They are often big, time-consuming and costly projects. There’s a lot at stake so they need to be priced correctly.
• There is uncertainty in the scope, we have no idea how much work is going to be involved.
• We have no idea what the result will be. With tax planning, for example, we don’t know whether it will be successful or not.

One-off projects are really challenging. But, we can price them using the same value pricing principles as any other service.

In my book “A Practical Approach to Value Pricing”, I teach a seven-step foundation of value pricing. This seven-step formula is the same formula we would apply to value price bookkeeping work and payroll and any other service. And it’s what we will use to price one-off projects.

You can watch the video here.

Here are a couple of ideas for you to think about…

#1 - How can we add more value

When the client tells us what they want doing and what they want to achieve, consider how you can add even more value for them.

How can you get them the best result?

Sometimes what the clients ask us to do isn’t really what they want. We have to uncover what the genuine objective is and then offer them a high-value solution.

#2 - Give the client options

You should still be using menu pricing for one-off projects. Even for fairly straightforward services.

For example, I speak at big conferences around the world, I get asked to deliver keynotes. I will still create three different options because I have no idea what people are willing to pay.

If you give the client options to choose from they will pick the one that they see the most value in, and fits their budget.

#3 - Payment terms

One of the principles of value pricing is payment terms.

Do not neglect this step.

We can get very creative with our payment terms.  We can trade off payment terms against price to get much better prices and results.

If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about value pricing, I run a free live online training session every month with a topic chosen by you. Attend live and you can ask me any questions you have. Click here to register and I will send you an invitation to the next session.

Wishing you every success on your pricing journey

Mark Wickersham

Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”